A Critical Appraisal of the Child and Adolescent Statute – ECA (1990) and the Brazilian System and Policies Toward the Protection of Children’s Rights

Part XVIII – Popular Participation, Transparency and Coordination: what is the ideal approach?

José Anastácio de Sousa Aguiar

Ten in ten reports on how to optimize social policies point to the increase of popular participation in the elaboration of public policies, transparency in public spending and, especially, because coordination is, as UNICEF (2004)[1] assures, an essential part of making government work for children, because invariably many departments provide services for children and have an impact on the realization of children’s rights. As the General Comment of the Committee stresses, co-ordination needs to be inter-departmental, multi-disciplinary, promoted between central and sub-national authorities and in collaboration with civil society and the private sector.

The ideal approach is faraway from a reasonable result in Brazil, as it is possible to realise from CEDECA/CE report[2] about the public spending in Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará, especially because popular participation in public policy decisions should be understood as a right of the people already recognized in some laws and, therefore, it does not end in the preparation of this or that proposal, but in their implementation. In Fortaleza, among the priorities pointed by the population in 2005 to the 2006 budget, part of them has not been completed yet and another even started.[3]         At the end of that report from CEDECA/CE, as a conclusion, it is said: “It must be guaranteed the conditions placed in this document: the transparency of public spending, the popular sovereignty in the decisions of public resources and the achievement of the aspirations of the population, with the implementations of the works and services chosen by the people.” [4]

Another problem related to full implementation of CRC principles is the lack of coordination. So, a visible cross-sectoral coordination is fundamental to recognize and realize children’s rights across the government. Invariably, many different government departments and other governmental affect children’s lives and children’s enjoyment of their rights. Few, if any, government departments have no effect on children’s lives, direct or indirect. The purpose of coordination is to ensure respect for all of the Convention’s principles and standards for all children within the State jurisdiction; to ensure that the obligations inherent in ratification of or accession to the Convention are not only recognized by those large departments which have a substantial impact on children – education, health or welfare and so on – but right across Government, including for example departments concerned with finance, planning, employment and defence, and at all levels.

Another key point suggested by Philip Alston and John Tobin (2005)[5] to improve the government public policies is the decentralization of power, resources and responsibilities from the federal (central) government to the local authorities. This process requires political reconfigurations involving a shift from appointed to elected governors and mayors, or the devolution of responsibilities from central to local government, or the introduction of democratic elections in situations where they did not previously apply, the implications for respect for civil and political rights are obvious and one would expect a strongly positive impact. These changes have also involved the devolution of major functional responsibilities in sectors such as health, education, sanitation, water supply and road construction, which in turn have a major potential impact on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural human rights.

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[1] UNICEF – Innocenti Research Centre – Op. cit., p. 15.

[2] CEDECA/CE (Center for the Defence of Child and Adolescent/Ceará) – Monitoring of the Participatory Budget in Fortaleza – 2008.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] ALSTON, Philip and TOBIN, John – Op. cit., p. 58.